Showing posts with label Terrorism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Terrorism. Show all posts

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Jakarta Bombings and President Comment

Two bombs exploded at JW Marriott and Ritz Carlton hotel Jakarta on FRi, July 17th. President SBY had commented on it, telling that the bombings may be related to not-so-final result of presidental election that held just 9 days earlier, in which he has been predicted to win by various survey institutions. He also announced inteligent reports of radical activities and plans which counter his candidancy. Some people then critisized his speech, especially his rivals at the election.

As public knows that there's hard (or even nasty) competition among presidential candidates, along with elector list problems and surveys subjectivity issues, hearing this speech, SBY rivals may be felt that it's likely to be pointed at them, so they protested. Or, it could be another chance to put another trial to decrease SBY popularity.

In my opinion, it's possible that the bomb related to election result, not caused by his predicted-to-lose rivals, but caused by terrorist preference: in fact, in SBY era terrorist attack was minimal, and there was Bali-bombing terrorists executions. Here's a citation from bloomberg:
"Yudhoyono, a 59-year-old former general, weakened the group by winning cooperation from captured terrorists, who convinced former comrades that the government doesn’t oppose their religion. The government also rewarded informants, including tuition aid for their children, relocation expenses and the privilege of forgoing uniforms in prison."

However, Even if it's true that the speech is emotional and quite improper, with also-emotional responses from the rivals, the issue is minor and cannot be the main issue, the bombing itself and economic impact. An International news portal, Bloomberg website doesn't care about it, and stay focused updating news on bombing investigations and economic fundamentals or sentiments.

How do you guys comment on it?